Representing Eire: Ideology in Irish Cinema from John Ford to John Carney, NeMLA March 15-18, 2012

While the Abbey Theatre is perhaps the most familiar public context through which the nationalistic and aesthetic struggle to shape an identity for a (post)colonial Ireland was formed, expatriate Irish used the bourgeoning film industry to represent Ireland from an international perspective. Recent commercial successes have ranged from the international co-production of The Wind That Shakes the Barley, winning British director Ken Loach a Palme d'Or, to the Dublin grassroots construction of John Carney's Oscar-winning Once, but awards aside, a tension still exists between the Ireland of filming destination and the Ireland of film origination. This panel invites submissions which focus on filmic representations of Ireland/the Irish from a variety of perspectives. Of particular interest are investigations of how the cinema has historically engaged the complexity of Irish culture in relation to economics, secularization, and globalization. Send abstracts of 250 words to Daniel Shea (Daniel.Shea@msmc.edu) or Kate Kennon (katekennon@optonline.net) by Sept. 30, 2011.